Does cyanide actually smell like almonds?

Late to the party, but that's really fascinating that you were the only one who could. I wonder if it's the same phenomena as people who can taste soap when they taste cilantro.

lettadaloki

oh and my amazing experience with cyanides was when i was allowed to prepare a bath for silvering. In addition to a little silver, there was also 50kg (110 pounds) of potassium cyanide for every 200 liters of water. Dealing with such an amount alone was amazing. We also had at least 100KG calcium cyanide and as much sodium cyanide at all times in our inventory.

As a former electroplater, I can say from my own experience that cyaniede definitely smell like almonds (if you can smell it). However, we were also taught at vocational school that not all can do this. So it was quite interesting when I mixed cyanidic wastewater with acidic wastewater in the laboratory and I was the only one of 4 people who could smell it. However, the dose was also significantly higher than yours. If I didn't have the containers under the fume cupboard, I and the rest of the laboratory wouldn't be anymore.

Today I learned how to make bad almond milk, and also delicious neurotoxin.

Stephen Gillie

I concur the tongue numbing effect. When I was a kid, I went to Corsica every summer for holidays and in the property of a family friend there were some almond trees that produced bitter almonds. Even though it was around 13 years or so ago I clearly remember eating a couple and having that same tongue numbing effect you described. Some of my family members had the same effect. Personally I didn't hate the taste but it was definitely unusual. Nowadays I actually enjoy the taste, in small amounts, when drinking Amaretto (like Disaronno) or eating Italian biscuits flavored with bitter almond.

Aurélien Ziller

you never asked us if we would smell your cyanide!!!! Fun video. Thanks

Well good sir, you are probably one of the unfortunates who cannot detect HCN. Either that, or the concentration was too low. I have on occasion, gotten a whiff of this stuff and to me...it smells like benzaldehyde. Stay safe bro!

Not an expert but I teach first aid for cyanide exposure. You are correct my stuff says 40 percent can smell cyanide and it causes olfactory fatigue so after a while you can not smell it. I would love to see you do some chemistry with the two cyanide antidotes: sodium thiosulfate and hydroxocobalamin. If you would like to see my lecture on cyanide exposure please message me and I will send you a link. Love the videos.

I was slightly poisoned with cyanide once thanks to my dad who made a cherry tincture and was lazy enough not to remove the pits. It was a bit bitter. I liked it, but after an hour I started to feel bad. Later, when I found out how it was prepared, I calculated that I had ingested 0.75 mg of cyanide. not much, but I felt weird. If anyone would like to know, the main antidote in cyanide poisoning is hydroxocobalamin, and additionally sodium thiosulfate. I had a good laugh: buy a kilo of potassium cyanide because it comes cheaper per gram - man, you are my hero!

Marta

In the german wiki, they say this about the smell of hydrogen cyanide (translated with DeepL): „However, the actual smell of the substance is not unanimously described in the literature in this way and is perceived differently by some people, e.g. "dull" or "pungent".“ And they say that „a considerable part of the population does not percueve the smell (...)“ due to genetics and/or the „paralysis of the olfactory nerve cells“. In Bavaria, it’s necessary to be able to smell hydrogen cyanide in order to achieve the „certificate of competence in pest control“.

You're back for October 😩 I thought you'd leave us alone again for a whole nother month. 🥰📺👨🏻‍🔬 I have some questions please when you have spare time! 1. Are cyanide pills—which spies put in their mouth in the movies to commit suicide before capture—real? 2. If so, could you make an ampule of a lethal dose and display it in a glass case in your lab to look even more badass than you are? Or, as a Halloween decoration? 3. Is Reggy your cameraman? 4. How many years apart are you and Cory? 5. Were you planning on working in pharmaceuticals during university? Oh, and I loved the educational animations! Especially when you demonstrated how the big, bad ☁️ of cyanide caused cardiopulmonary collapse in the stick figure. Fanboying and joking aside, I do think this kind of video still resonates with your Channel mission statement of making chemistry more accessible to, understandable by, and appreciated by the layperson.

Alexander Kirk

Do a reaction that requires HCN as a solvent

I swear you get lightheaded for a second after smelling it, but that could also purely be placebo. Other than that, nothing.

Nile Red

This was actually quite safe because I wasnt ever working with much. The dangerous one will be when I make a few mL of liquid hydrogen cyanide

Nile Red

I wonder if this is the most dangerous video he's done. He's worked with a lot of dangerous chemicals but cyanide just feels worse cuz of the connotation of the word :P

did you end up having any symptoms after a few hours?

The big question here is how much almonds in the air would kill you 😅

Tom G

You can easily experience a small release of the 'cyanide' smell/taste in chewing some apple seeds. In my experience that is very similar to the smell of K or NaCN. Of course it varies with different types of apples but I've definitely had some that released small amounts of amygdalin.

Will Latinette

You should make cyanoacrylate glue or nitriles (maybe nitrile gloves?) with the leftover NaCN.

Butter almonds have been used as a cancer treatment since vitamin b17 was classified as a carcinogen. The theory is, that this like a liposome, only opens up under certain circumstances... in the case of b17 in the presence of cancer cells. Great video.

I used to have a great fear working with cyanide. I do not have a sense of smell (lost it 32 years ago after a series of seizures I had at 11 years of age.) Cyanide is not as scary to handle as I used to feel about it and I enjoy cyanide chemistry. I'll be using cyanide again in hopefully the near future for gold and PGM extraction from rock etching acid waste, rock tumbler silt and anode slimes. I think I still have a sealed container with potassium cyanide I created last year.

Matthew Wilson

I remember eating prunus fruits including cherries, plums, and peaches as a child. I was always curious about what the core tasted like, and the seeds I extracted from the core always emitted a choking sensation whenever I chewed on them. I have never smelled HCN, but now it makes sense for it to smell like chlorine gas. Edit: I think you would have had more success smelling the almond if it were freshly extracted from a prunus fruit, as sweet almonds are extracted from prunus dulcis.

This was really interesting! And also gave me anxiety. The cyanide meter was a good call for safety's sake (and it did help a bit knowing the actual ppm of the HCN gas and knowing the lethal levels).

Yeah, it's also pretty sad.

Nile Red

thanks!

Nile Red

The bitter almonds were easy to get, but the sodium cyanide is quite hard. I have no idea what I'll do with it. Maybe I'll purify some gold? I don't know

Nile Red

I am glad you appreciated that

Nile Red

It's possible that you tried a bitter one. Some "normal" almonds can be bitter though.

Nile Red

oh that is very true

Nile Red

Nuts coming out of an intact shell generally don't need to be washed before consumption. Just saying.

My teachers have told me that it smelled like almond oil, not just normal almonds. Also a couple of years ago I was visiting my brother in the south of Mexico, we went to a forest and they told me that the trees were almond trees and we opened one and it was really bitter, I’m not sure if it was a bitter almond or that’s how raw almonds smell like lol

I plan to add more warnings in this video, lol. And yeah, cherry pits are similar I think and so are apricot pits. They all have amygdalin in them, which can release benzaldehyde.

Nile Red

Almond

Aaron Aitken

You said that the bitter almond tasted a bit like cherry. Interesting that cherry pits are another source of amygdalin. I think Cody's Lab channel tried using cherry pits as a source of cyanide for processing gold (with a warning about the danger)

Impatient Ape

i love the keysmash on google

Giovanna Jacobus

I think the fact you can get both sodium cyanide and the bitter almonds soooo easily was scarier then your testing. Think I trust you more then the average person! Also I think there is a real educational aspect of this vid. I did know that bitter almond was different then the almonds we eat. I didn’t know about the odour part. Good work! Now what are you going to do with all the sodium cyanide? Can’t you make some nice crystals from it? Is it the sodium that gives the crystal it’s shape and the cyanide the colour? 🤷‍♂️

André Forcier

people using bitter almond as cancer therapy is scarier than cyanide

this was hilarious

Liam

This is just a temporary thumbnail, lol.

Nile Red

Off camera, I used the cyanide meter on it and found nothing. I didnt think to show it though because if it were there, I would've smelled it.

Nile Red

I understand what you mean. However, there are a lot of topics/projects that I am interested in that don't necessarily focus on synthesis. I think talking about the smell of cyanide is still very relevant to chemistry and it is important knowledge. It wasn't my intention for it to appear as a "stunt."

Nile Red

I think as a control you should have watered and tested normal almonds too. Maybe they even have a small part amygdalin.

Liked it!! I’m very surprised that 1) bitter almonds exist and 2) they’re deadly

You are a crazy guy. Love it!

I like the synthesis and experimental procedure videos; the 'watch me do things perceived as dangerous' - not as interesting, especially without much particular chemistry content.

LVE

“Smelling Cyanide” sounds a bit questionable lol